Will 2012 MacBook Pros get Retina Displays?

In the next stage of MacBook Pro evolution, the devices will most likely get thinner. Most experts believe that the line’s next update, probably within the next six months, will bring this change. According to a new report, that may not be the only big update coming to the MacBook Pro: supply chain sources say that the next iteration will bring Retina Displays to the popular notebooks.

The sources expect second-quarter 2012 MacBook Pros to have their resolution bumped to 2880 x 1800. That would easily give them the sharpest displays of all commercial laptops. The same sources say that the ultra-high res displays would help Apple to further differentiate its products from competitors.

You’ll want to take this rumor with several grains of salt, but it makes sense that Apple would revamp the MacBook line next year. The MacBook Pro has had the same external design since late 2008. Ultrabooks finally give Windows notebook makers products to compete with the MacBook Air; Apple needs something astounding that communicates to customers that its computers are ahead of the curve. A thinner casing and a Retina Display could do just that.

Technically, the marketing term Retina Display is supposed to signify a display with a pixel density that exceeds 300ppi. A 2880×1800 resolution would fall short of that: a 17-inch display would have 200ppi, a 15 inch display would have 226ppi, and a 13 inch display would have 261ppi. One angle Apple could take would be to say that a laptop sits much farther away from the eyes than a phone, and the perception of sharpness would be equal.

It’s all semantics, but one thing we can all agree on is that such a display would pack in many more pixels than we’re accustomed to seeing on laptops. Current MacBook models range from 1680 x 1050 to 1280 x 800, so this would, in some cases, double the current resolutions.